On the scarcity of >3900 Ma detrital zircons in ≥3500 Ma metasediments

Abstract

Constant volume models for the continental crust require a flux of crustal material back into the mantle (recycling), equal in volume to that of the juvenile igneous suites added to the continental crust throughout time. In growth of crustal volume models, there is not equilibrium between the volume of juvenile crustal additions and any recycling (destruction) of crust. By establishing the proportion of >3900 Ma detrital zircons in early Archaean sediments it might be possible to constrain the relative importance of crustal growth and recycling. Gneiss complexes in western Greenland, northern Labrador and northeastern China contain rare ≥3500 Ma detrital metasediments. In sediments deposited between 3500 and 3600 Ma, ≥3900 Ma zircons have not been detected in a suite of 117 detrital grains. Based on statistical considerations, at the 95% confidence level any ‘missed’ ≥3900 Ma component forms <3% of this suite. Likewise, >3900 Ma detrital grains do not occur amongst 54 detrital grains from (even rarer) 3700–3800 Ma sediments, arguing with 95% certainty that any ‘missed’ ≥3900 Ma component forms <5% of this most ancient suite. If the age spectra of these detrital zircon suites are representative of the complexes in which they reside, then constant volume (recycling=new additions) models require that by 3500 Ma, >97% of >3900 Ma crust was destroyed by recycling. Such an extremely high recycling rate (≈25% of the crust 100 Ma −1) is hard to reconcile with the diversity of initial Nd and Sr isotopic ratios of well preserved early Archaean granitoid suites in the same complexes, because significant average crustal residence times are required to permit the radiogenic isotopic systems to evolve. The most likely interpretation of the detrital zircon record in the Greenland, Labrador and China sediments is that in their provenance areas the volume of continental crust was small at 3900 Ma, and that it grew significantly during the early Archaean. If the measured ≥3500 Ma detrital sediment suites are globally representative, they support growth models for the continental crust in the early Archaean, rather than models involving recycling of a voluminous >3900 Ma sialic crust. Because of its global coverage and the dating of thousands of grains, the age spectra for detrital zircons from 3000–3200 Ma sediments provides a more reliable impression of crustal ages. However, as they were deposited 700–900 Ma after 3900 Ma, the globally small proportion of ≥3900 Ma detrital grains in them (from Jack Hills, Mt. Narryer and Wyoming) can be accommodated in both crustal growth and moderate recycling models.